Meet the OCTM Family!
One cat lead us to have many.
Hi!!! Welcome to OCTM!!! My name is Emmalee! I am the creator/artist, you name it! I started this little business officially in 2018 (but I have been making things ever since I was a kid)! I was majored in art but ended up getting my degree in hospitality management. I have always loved making things and expressing my creativity! I am happily married to Lawrence (almost high school sweethearts)! He is the back end of things; helps with the website, shipping and more! Together we have 11 rescued cats (which read their bios below). We adopted/rescued all the ones that have been abused, neglected or that need medical attention - now they are all spoiled lazy fat happy boys that love their lives! We love travelling and heavily inspired by nature, our travels, and of course all the kitties.
Nero
oh Nero, his is my literally baby. He is the face of my business and just this chunky, stubby tailed little love bug!
We rescued him in 2016 from the shelter who just raided a home with 27 neglected cats. We noticed him, this little kitten curled up in the back corner of the cage at the shelter looking so incredibly scared. We also noticed something was wrong.
We took this little ball of fur home and he just instantly snuggled. He wanted all the love and attention. He knew he was safe with us. The shelter told us his tail had gotten caught in a door when this hoarder house shut it. So he has the cutest little stubby tail!
After a few days of him being home, we noticed he was not using the litter box and had blood in his urine. Rushed him to the vet and found out he had a bladder stone the size of a marble (keep in mind, he was maybe 2-3 pounds….). He was rushed into surgery and the vet was concerned he wouldn’t make it because he was so tiny……but he did.
Now, he is all healthy (a little overweight lol) but he follows me everywhere. He knows we saved him and he is forever grateful for his life.
Rajah aka Beng
Where do I even start with this pretty boy!
We got a phone call from the local shelter informing us they received a stressed out bengal and they didn’t want just anyone to adopt him. We have a really good relationship with the shelter.
Raj was is pretty rough shape when we took him in, he was severely underweight and had chronic UTI’s. His previous owner knew nothing about the breed, their temperament, or their care. They say a pretty cat and thought it would be good for their image…….no joke.
We spent many days working with Raj, getting him to trust us. We found out he was abused and would cower any time my husband would try to pet him. With his diet, we were told he was just fed a generic dry kibble, which bengals require a much more in depth diet. Because of this it caused the constant UTI’s. Currently, this camera ham is on a half medicated and half raw diet. He is the happiest boy and literally just chills on my shoulder! He is a complete mama’s boy!
Tartarus aka Tarts
Tartarus is our only fluffy boy! Him and his brother Arby have a pretty sad story as well.
When he’s not lounging in his many cat trees he’s claimed, you can find him weighing down the vacuum that he uses to get across the room (talk about lazy lol).
Arbiter aka Arby
Arbs is the litter mate/brother to Tarts! Arbs thankfully hasn’t had as many issues as his brother, we think it’s because he’s a pretty big boy. Which looks are deceiving, despite his kittenhood he is one of the sweetest boys! Him and his brother just love snuggles, belly rubs and food!
Bison
Bison is our tom cat that jumped out at us on the bike trail. Imagine a big beefy black cat lunging at you on your bike but meowing all happily! That’s what bison did. We don’t even know where he came out of but we knew he was a stray.
The only time he let me hold him was carrying him half a mile to our vehicle! We have never had a cat that was so at home than him! We always quarantine the kitties before we let them interact with the others for a few days. He didn’t have a care in the world, he came went in the room, found a blanket and sprawled all out on it like he owned the place!
Bison is our most well behaved and grateful boy.
Zephyr
Our 3rd black kitty is zephyr aka Hun buns
He is the absolute worst to get pictures! He does not sit still! We rescued him almost 7 years ago. He doesn't have a sad story really but hubby got him for me the day after my mom died, so he has a special place in my heart.
He's quite the recluse and just does his own thing. He likes to hang out with the senior boys, the youngest ones like to antagonize him (he's a bit of a drama queen)
Rutledge aka Ruts
Rutledge is a very special boy. We rescued him in 2013. Hubby was visiting his friend up north and noticed his neighbor carrying two kittens outside and placing them in tall grass. He didn’t think anything of it until he heard the lawn mower starting. He said he doesn’t even remember arguing with the man, he just remembers grabbing these two kittens and running back to his friends house.
We have Rutledge and our friend has his brother. Both little kittens were so young, they still needed nursed and could not go to the bathroom on their own. We spent many days with these two, nursing them and wiping their bums to get them to go.
Ruts grew up to be our literal guard cat. He inspects everyone that comes in, stares angrily out the windows when there’s a vehicle in the drive way and constantly patrols the house. He lets us know if there’s danger (usually it’s just the twins wrestling)!
Uno
Uno had the worst first two years of his life. We found him at petco from a lady that claimed she was a rescue organization. We saw this sad looking boy hiding underneath a pillow in his very small cage. She claimed if we didn’t take her, she would have him euthanized because no one wants a cat with a messed up eye. Us being softies, took him that night.
Immediately I noticed he clearly had a mouth issue, for a 2 year old cat, his gums looked like they were bleeding and his teeth were awful yellow. We knew something was wrong!
We ended up taking him to a specialty vet in Pittsburgh for an exam and that day he went in for surgery. He had all but 4 teeth removed. We were told he had stomatitis where his body is rejecting his teeth.
More of Uno’s back story, he lived in a cat carrier for his first 2 years, whoever had him, clearly didn’t take care of him. His back legs are bowed out from never being able to stand, since it was a small carrier. How did he loose his eyes sight……from what the vet said, it looks like he had an upper respiratory infection that was left untreated.
Fast forward to now, he is literally the happiest boy too. He loves running around the house full speed, lots of snuggles and just being loved on.
Zeus
Zeus is one of our senior boys (he'll be 14 this year!) There isn't too much going on in his head and he's been like that since we adopted him, he's a complete snuggle bug and his favorite thing to do is get lost in the corner of a room (seriously.....we have to find him whenever he's lost and turn him around).
He doesn't have a sad adoption story, one of the stray cats had kittens and we took him! All the others got adopted too
Remmy aka Brizzle
This is pretty much his life 24/7.......sleeping and eating, little to no activity and tons of snuggles.
Brizz is one of our seniors, he's 13 too and is just a big gentle giant! Hubby found him outside on our porch at our apartment back in the college days! Just a scrawny kitten.......now look at him, although he's lost some weight of the years.
At one point, he chunked out to 22 pounds......he immediately went on a diet after being fat shamed at the vet.
Coco aka Caterpie
He is another one of our seniors that likes to lay low! He's pretty skiddish around new people, he took some time to warm up to us and we got him when he was a kitten.
Cocoa is allergic to plastic......so his bottom lip will swell up if he eats if he drinks anything from plastic (so everything is stainless steel for him)
He is best friends with Zeus, those two spend their days snuggled up together. We got both of them around the same time so they kind of grew up together!!